The statuette named Labor in the Layer monument has the most expressive portraiture of all four statuettes. With his care-worn features, gray hair and beard, engaged in digging, he is utterly Saturnine in character. One can only speculate upon the nationality of the craftsman, but I am inclined to think it's the work of a commissioned and travelling sculptor of the Northern Mannerist school, perhaps from a city based in close trading with Norwich, from Flanders or North Germany. It's only when close-up that one gets a true sense of the expressiveness of this portrait. Compare how different his face appears from a lower view-point in the photo below to this sharp angle close-up shot.
4 comments:
It does have the look of a european carving ,all the best stu
Thanks for your interest Stu, keep up with the muffins and reading!
Yes, indeed, it is masterly. Also, it gives a sort of terminus post quem relative dating that is less obvious from the other three: the treatment does indeed look early 17th century.
Taking the other three as highly-stylized gods it's quite appropriate that Man and the human condition are carefully delineated. Also, inappropriately it seems to me, his head is slightly larger than the other three!
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